We are pleased to announce that an agreement has been reached with UTFA regarding the payment of PTR for faculty and librarians, retroactive to July 1, 2020. We are working to ensure that these increases are processed as quickly as possible. Thank you for your patience over the past several months as we worked with UTFA to reach this agreement.

We would also like to take this opportunity to provide the context that led up to this agreement and explain the process for future agreement on PTR merit pay for 2021.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the University and UTFA agreed in March 2020 to extend the timeframe for submission of annual reports in connection with the PTR process by up to two months.

There was a further delay related in part to different views held by the University and UTFA about whether 2020 PTR formed part of the 2018-2020 Memorandum of Settlement, which was UTFA’s view, or was subject to the current round of negotiations, as the University contended. That disagreement was then referred to Arbitrator William Kaplan for resolution.  Arbitrator Kaplan released his decision in the University’s favour on January 4th, 2021.

With the dispute resolved, the University approached UTFA with a proposal to pay July 1, 2020 PTR, notwithstanding the fact that the parties had not completed their negotiations for salary, benefits and workload for the period July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021. UTFA agreed to the University’s proposal.

Our current negotiations with UTFA regarding other salary issues as well as benefits and workload for the period July 1, 2020 – June 30, 2021 continue.

Finally, it is hard to believe that we are almost at the one-year mark in the battle against COVID-19. In that time there have been many changes in our professional and personal lives. Your hard work, creativity and dedication have helped the University address a vast number of challenging issues and advance our teaching and research mission. We are profoundly grateful to you.